Yes, I know DSD to FLAC conversion is pretty intense, but I only have a couple of DSD 128 tracks in my library. These are the approximate processing speeds on my 2014 Mac mini with convolution:
FLAC 24/352.8: 8.11x. Highest bitrate FLAC in my library. Light sweat?
FLAC 24/192: 22x.
FLAC 24/96: 60x.
FLAC 16/44.1: Well over 100x (Roon doesn’t display values >= 100x). Barely awake?
DSD 128. Around 4.8x. Plays back without any hiccups. Moderate sweat?
I don’t have any DSD 256 or DSD 512 tracks, which presumably might bring my Mac mini to its knees. Then again, room correction - very important to me - requires DSD to be converted to PCM first, so I might as well add pre-converted versions to my library.
IMHO, unless you are doing heavy processing with simultaneous multiple zones, you don’t need a very powerful computer for audio playback. New computers are likely way more powerful than my 6 year old Mac mini.
On my 2009 (!) Mac Mini acquired for C$200 earlier this year, I use upsampling to 192k, volume levelling and some very involved convolution and it has never been a problem. However, my DAC doesn’t support higher sample rates or DSD, so that doesn’t come into play.
Don’t know why you’d have to convert DSD to PCM to use room correction, I use Convolution filters and Parametric Equalization with DSD 64 files without conversion. The use of Convolution filters when playing back DSD is the only combination that causes my Mac mini and problems.
My 2014 Mac mini (and before that my 2012) breezes through everything just as you’ve described, it’s only the combination of convolution with DSD that drags down the performance. It plays them fine after a second or two spin up to get the processing past 1X.
You are right, Roon doesn’t require conversion from DSD to PCM. When I disabled that, DSD128 took a good 15 seconds before playback and it was pushing my Mac pretty hard at 1.1x.
